De Mistura says Geneva talks to resume in July

UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Wednesday that the intra-Syrian peace talks would resume in July in Geneva.

He added that he hoped to see progress in the US-Russian negotiations on the Syrian file during the upcoming G20 summit.

“When Russia and America do agree on some parameters, the others (other parties) are in a way easily, or possibly, influenced,” he said. “There is a window of opportunity,” he added.

The international envoy’s remarks came during a news conference held in the region of Losby Gods near Oslo, where he was attending a peace mediation meeting.

“There is an aim of having an Astana meeting sometime early July, just before (the G20 meeting in) Hamburg, and perhaps just before we may be wanting also to relaunch Geneva talks,” Reuters quoted the UN envoy as saying.

“They (the talks) will be in July, they will be after Ramadan, but also once we would have helped and made sure the de-escalation has really worked,” de Mistura noted.

Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed in May to establish four de-escalation zones in Syria following the upcoming Astana peace talks, which were delayed until early next month. Those will be held in parallel with negotiations between the different Syrian factions in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations.